NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
eographica
Uncovering a Ritual
Center in Veracruz
FOR NEARLY a century
archaeologists have
roamed through Mexico,
uncovering remnants of
ancient civilizations. Yet
new sites still emerge,
offering tantalizing hints
that the story of Mexico's
past is far from complete.
In Veracruz state, Mexi
can archaeologist Jaime
Cortes Hernandez has
been probing Cuajilote,
reported in the 1920s but
virtually ignored since.
He has found that it was
a major ceremonial site
from A.D. 400 to 800, with
some 50 buildings; today most
are vegetation-covered mounds.
Two rows of pyramids flanked
a broad avenue more than half
a mile long, a temple at one end
and a ball court at the other.
Among the finds: a unique
steam bathhouse meant for
community ritual bathing.
Cortes Hernandez and
National Geographic Society
archaeologist George E. Stuart,
who visited Cuajilote last year,
emphasize how the builders
integrated rivers, streams, and
mountains into their design.
"This place is a beautiful exam
ple of sites still coming to light
in Mexico," says
Stuart.
aa
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Jurassic Frog Hops
Into the Record Book
KERMIT, THE FROG PUPPET of
Muppet fame, would recognize
this guy as kin. But he'd be
astonished at his age and his
home: Jurassic era rivers and
streams where the northern
Arizona desert is today.
That's where scientists sup
ported by the National
Geographic Society found
the tiny, delicate bones
of the oldest frog spe
cies yet known-190
million years old, the
precursor of today's 4,000
frog and toad species.
"We have five partial skele
tons, none more than three
inches long," says Neil Shubin
of the University of Pennsylva
nia. "The challenge was to find
GREGHARLIN,ADAPTEDFROMDRAWINGIN
NATURE MAGAZINE
out what this animal
head-"a whole suite of charac
looked like."
teristics" unique to frogs. Those
Shubin and Farish A.
are precisely the features that
Jenkins, Jr., of Harvard
enable a frog to jump.
University, discovered the
The oldest previously known
bones during a 1983 expedition
frog lived 175 million years ago
but did not identify them as
in what is now Argentina. The
froggish until recently.
researchers combined the Latin
The creatures possessed long
prosalire, "to leap forward,"
hind limbs and fused tail verte-
and Navajo bitis, "high over
brae tucked inside an elongated it," to name the Arizona critter
pelvis that points toward the
Prosalirusbitis.
AUGUST 1996
I